Almost anyone can burn bright for a few days. But few can burn bright for years upon years. I've spent the last decade researching, reporting, and writing about sustainable excellence. Here are the highlights of what I've learned:

1. Outcomes matter, but you've got to enjoy the process if you are to have meaningful longevity. 2. Community is everything. Nobody reaches the top alone. The people around you shape you. Surround yourself wisely. 3. Consistency is way more important than intensity.

4. How you perform on your average and bad days is more important than how you perform on your great ones. 5. Work and craft can be a big part of your identity, but when they are the whole of it you become fragile. 6. The ability to prioritize and make tradeoffs is key.

7. You've got to be patient and expect there will be long plateaus and even periods of stagnation. 8. Mentorship and coaching is key. 9. After big wins or devastating defeats, the medicine is the same: get back to doing the work itself. 10. Become a master of showing up.

11. Caring deeply makes you vulnerable and it's just the price you have to pay; use that vulnerability to connect with others on the same or similar paths. 12. All-nighters are for hacks; sleep is very important, regardless of your work. 13. Move your body to ground your mind.

14. Lean on routines but be flexible enough to release from them when necessary. 15. You don't have to like failure but you've got to be okay with it. 16. Nutrition is important; it's fuel for body and mind alike. 17. Focus devoutly on fundamentals, waste no time on fads.

18. Find beauty and meaning in what may at first seem boring. 19. Curiosity is an antidote to anxiety and oversized ego. 20. Don't worry about being the best; worry about being the best at getting better. 21. Take the work extremely seriously, but yourself not so much.

22. Stress + rest = growth. Figuring out the appropriate dose of each is key, and a moving target. 23. Right thinking and right feeling follow right action; this is why showing up is so important. 24. Inspiration comes and goes. Habits and systems are far more reliable.

25. Do not worry about be "balanced." Instead, know your core values and follow them wherever they take you. Communicate this to the people around you. 26. Deep concentration has as much to do with your external surroundings as it does your internal state of mind.

27. It is okay (and normal) to have periods of emptiness. Meaning comes and goes. Embrace it when it's there, stay patient when it's not. 28. The path is everything. The goal is the path and the path is the goal. 29. Staying on the path requires both ruggedness and flexibility.

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